Those of us in the retro/nostalgia community have certainly been spoiled over the last couple years. Sure, there are lots of things (Hot and Cool Nerds, we’re lookin’ at you!) that have been lost to time with little hope of returning. There are also many beverage-y items we thought we’d never taste again and here we are drinking Crystal Pepsi. Here are our favorite Dead Beverages That Have Been Resurrected.

6 – Original New York Seltzer

Admittedly, we never had this one the first time around. The social media buzz was pretty hot for it, so we tracked it down to try some of the root beer flavor. Cola & Berry (yes, that’s one flavor) is next on the list to try!

5 – Kool-Aid Character Flavors

We all lost our minds a little when we saw the Kool Aid Man struttin’ his stuff in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then Matt Lauer announced the pending return of Sharkleberry Fin. In 2014 Sharkleberry hit store shelves and we were in heaven. But it got even better. Joining Sharkleberry was Rock-a-Dile Red, Purplesaurus Rex, Great Bluedini, and Pink Swimmingo. Notably missing was Incrediberry, that weird drippy blob of a Kool Aid super hero. Maybe one day. Unfortunately, most of the flavors went back into the abyss. But it’s okay because we bought 1,000 packs of Great Bluedini. That’s at least a year’s supply!

4 – Crystal Pepsi

Fun fact: This song plays on a ride at Kings Island amusement park and makes at least one rider think of Crystal Pepsi (Lee).

Late 2015, Pepsi tested the water (or should we say Crystal soda?) and ran a contest for nostalgia weirdos to win bottles of Crystal Pepsi. The Internet lost its damn mind. Fast forward to July 2016 and Crystal Pepsi sees a proper release in Canada, to be followed soon (August 8) by a release in the U.S. How did Canada get something before the U.S.? Everyone keeps threatening to move to Canada, so I guess it’s time to start being nice to Linz’s flappy headed brethren.

How does it taste? After four days of hunting for Crystal Pepsi, even though Linz doesn’t drink soda, it tastes like overly syrup-y fountain Pepsi. Take that with a grain of salt. If it isn’t water or something fermented, Linz isn’t into it.

3 – Ecto Cooler

With the Ghostbusters 2016 movie came a slew of Ghostbusters products– toys, music videos, and yes: food stuff. From Key Lime Slime and White Fudge Marshmallow Stay Puft Twinkies to Slimer and Stay Puft-shaped marshmallows and Ecto Cooler, we got it all. Wait, Ecto Cooler is back? Reports surfaced in November 2015 that the Ecto Cooler trademark had been renewed, and in May 2016 we were able to feed our diabetes with a delicious Ghostbusters tie-in. On a totally unrelated note, Lee really needs to schedule a dentist appointment.

2 – Surge

We were seriously subjected to awful marketing like this for an entire decade.

Rumors of a Surge return were the stuff of legends. If you don’t remember screaming “SURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGEEEEE” back in the 90s, then clearly you weren’t there. One time Lee spent the night at a friend’s house and finished off an open can of Surge the next morning. It was lumpy and he accused his friend of putting something in the drink. The friend, of course, denied this. When Lee sat the can back on the counter, the biggest ants of all time came crawling out. That was the last time he had Surge until the reboot. Needless to say, he’s really really glad it came back to help suppress the ant memories.

1 – Zima

Seriously. This is still for sale in Japan. For those of you who were not age appropriate when it had its U.S. run, you should know it has a cotton candy taste. Imagine an alcohol-infused Crystal Pepsi that tastes like pink and blue foam – that’s Zima!

HonoUrable Mention: Clearly Canadian

This is sort of back, sort of. There was a campaign running for a couple years. Linz pre-ordered a case of each of the four flavors being produced. This was two years and $160 ago. It’ll make one hell of an article if that stuff ever ships. At least the Clearly Canadian FAQ acknowledges they know people want Orbitz back. We’re looking forward to updating this list when this and Orbitz are officially back!

What previously lost beverages have you been enjoying? What other beverages would you like to see come back? Let us know!

Author: Lee and Linz
Sometimes Lee and Linz collaborate on stuff. This is one of those times.